Our History

Our History. KJR Industries, Inc. was founded in November of 2000 by Howard Timothy Grimmett. It has been owned by him 100% until this day, as the single shareholder and business operator. KJR Industries developed a market niche early on as a company that purchased foreclosed homes in the St. Louis City and County areas.

A local bank started KJR out with a $100,000 dollar line of credit. As the years continued KJR’s business credit line expanded to about 3 million dollars, distributed over four local banks.

KJR purchased properties privately and performed as the prime contractor for most of the property transactions. KJR also performed general contracting services for others and partnered with other rehabbers in joint venture deals. Renovations ranged in size from about $15,000 to well over $100,000 dollars for gut rehabs. At any one time KJR would have five to seven projects going on simultaneously, with a dollar amount outstanding to the bank in the range of $400,000 - $600,000 dollars.

The initial plan for most homes was to sell to the end user, a first time home buyer. This accounted for about 50 % of KJR’s sales. The properties that did not sale within 90 days would be leased out and then offered to investors interested in accumulating investment property. KJR sold to both in state and out of state investors.

Since inception KJR has completed well over 100 projects worth almost $7 million dollars, mostly residential and commercial rehabs. In 2004, KJR Industries experimented with the idea of starting a new home division. KJR built two new construction residential homes in the Lincoln County area near Troy, Missouri. This area of the company never materialized due to the low returns and high risks associated with building single family homes at that particular time.

The idea of offering to our clients, a one stop shop real estate investment location soon developed. It was a way of providing synergistic services to our clients. From that idea several businesses emerged. Listed below are the divisions that grew out of the desire to provide unparalled service for the rehab market. We operated a construction company, realty company, property management and mortgage companies. Also, we provided rehab coaching and private rehab financing. During the height of the real estate boom KJR Industries, Inc. was responsible for generating income for about 40 people.

Early in 2004 and 2005 St. Louis local banks began to be acquired by much larger out of state conglomerates which often eliminated the speculative real estate lending department. This had a serious impact on KJR’s ability to access funds for purchasing and rehabbing projects on a consistent basis. Coupled with that, when the market began to decline in late 2006, KJR took aggressive measures to reduce housing inventory, employees, and expenses. KJR then concentrated on completing all unfinished projects and looked for new areas in the real estate construction market to expand into .

For the last two years, KJR has been working on completing and selling its final few properties, teaming with large commercial contractors, and locating private business funding. In 2009, KJR continues to remain focused on expanding its General Contracting services to others and continuing to expand its minority market presence in the St. Louis metro area.